A Massive Essential Retailer Is Now Closing Another Major Store

June 3, 2024

A massive essential retailer is now closing another major store after the chain has already shuttered hundreds of locations nationwide since 2022.

CVS has issued a statement amid another store closure affecting customers in a matter of weeks.

CVS has announced the closure of a pharmacy and drug store in Troy, New York.

The site located downtown at 49 4th Street will close permanently on June 26.

CVS spokesperson Amy Thibault shared a statement with local ABC affiliate News10 about the reasons behind the closure.

“Maintaining access to pharmacy services in the communities we serve is an important factor we consider when making store closure decisions,” she said.

“Other factors include local market dynamics, population shifts, a community’s store density, and ensuring there are other geographic access points to meet the needs of the community.”

All patients will get their prescriptions transferred to the CVS at 461 2nd Avenue, which is over two miles away.

It is the third CVS closure to hit the community in just over a year.

In 2023, the pharmacy chain shuttered two locations in nearby Albany.

The closures are part of a wider plan from CVS to shutter 900 stores nationwide.

First announced in November 2021, the closures have been coming at a rate of around 300 a year.

At the time, CVS explained that it would target underperforming stores where sales were declining.

The company is now at the tail end of the shuttering spree.

In February this year, CVS announced it would sell all stores in Puerto Rico.

All 22 locations are being transferred to Caribe Pharmacy Holdings.

CVS is far from the only pharmacy chain closing stores.

Rival Walgreens announced last summer it would shutter 150 locations in the US.

Then-CEO Rosalind Brewer said the company was “taking immediate actions to optimize profitability for our US healthcare segment.”

Walgreens has also eliminated approximately 10% of its US workforce.

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Also Read: Retirees Will Now Receive More Money For Social Security

Other Economy News Today

Applications for unemployment benefits now surge to new highs, a sign that the white-hot labor market is starting to cool off.

First-time applications for unemployment benefits rose last week to 231,000, the highest level since August, per CNN.

Thursday’s data also showed that the number of continuing claims, or applications from people who have filed for unemployment for at least one week, was 1.78 million.

That’s an increase of 17,000 from the prior week, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The latest numbers come less than a week after the monthly jobs report showed the US economy added just 175,000 positions in April, less than economists expected and a steep drop-off from prior months.

US employers have now added an average of 245,500 jobs per month, versus 2023’s 251,000-per-month average.

Still, hiring remains strong. Although the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9% last month, it’s the 27th consecutive month that the jobless rate has held under 4%, matching a streak last seen in the late 1960s.

Weekly jobless claims data tends to be volatile but, while one week’s worth of data “does not a trend make,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at Fwdbonds.

“We can no longer be sure that calm seas lie ahead for the US economy if today’s weekly jobless claims are any indication.”

“Company layoffs are picking up, hinting at caution on the part of companies as they weigh the outlook for the second half of the year,” he wrote in a note Thursday.

The Federal Reserve has been battling inflation by raising its key lending rate in the hopes of slowing the economy.

While the labor market has so far resisted those efforts, remaining white hot for the past 18 months despite 11 rate hikes from the central bank, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last week that demand has “cooled from its extremely high level of a couple of years ago.”

Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Economics said in a note Thursday: “We’d need to see at least a month of elevated readings to convince us that the trend really has turned.”

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Also Read: A Giant Company Now Announces Unexpected Layoffs in Virginia

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